Month: September 2016

This is a major blow to the US Refugee Admissions Program since Texas is, by far, the largest resettlement state in the nation.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Governor Greg Abbott seem to be in sync this week on protecting Texas from not adequately screened refugees.

The governor’s complaint is that the federal government cannot adequately assure the state of Texas that all of the refugees from the Middle East and Africa being placed there are thoroughly screened.

And, in fact, that was confirmed in Senate testimony we heard this week (click here). At that hearing Senator Cruz of Texas elicited some damning testimony from federal officials.

The arrogant federal resettlement contractor will of course claim they can still operate in Texas as a so-called Wilson-Fish state like more than a dozen other states operate where there is no state government involvement. However, the Wilson-Fish program itself is constitutionally questionable and Governor Abbott, if serious, could block that too with a legal challenge.

But, at least in the short run, the program will be seriously disrupted and that alone will send ripples through the entire refugee industry.

Here is the news (at Breitbart) that happened on the eve of the new fiscal year (tomorrow!) which will see a massive inflow of refugees especially from Syria and other hotbeds of terrorism unless the Republican Congress cuts the funding for the program when Congress reconvenes after the election in November.

Governor Greg Abbott has officially pulled the plug on Texas’ participation in the federal refugee resettlement program after the Obama Administration rejected specific security conditions.

The move by the Texas governor stops the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (THHSC) from coordinating the resettlement of these refugees that the Obama Administration has repeatedly said they cannot certify not to be a threat to the residents of the state. His action follows the rejection of a proposal announced previously where Texas officials demanded a certification that the refugees were not a security threat and a limit on the number of refugees to the original 2016 plan.

“Texas has repeatedly requested that the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Director of National Intelligence provide assurances that refugees resettled in Texas will not pose a security threat, and that the number of refugees resettled in Texas would not exceed the State’s original allocation in fiscal year 2016 – both of which have been denied by the federal government,” Abbott said in a statement obtained by Breitbart Texas. “As a result, Texas will withdraw from the refugee resettlement program. As governor, I will continue to prioritize the safety of all Texans and urge the federal government to overhaul this severely broken system.”

Unfortunately, unless I get further clarification, you will need to send your testimony in the form of a letter and please mail it Monday so it has the best chance of getting there in time.

This is the Update I just posted there:

***Update***Please take the time to write letters, in a letter format, I’ve been notified by the committee staff that they can’t simply post a couple of lines of e-mails. They have also asked that I remove the e-mail address I had originally published. You know how important this issue is to you, so spend a little time writing a formal letter!

Sorry for all the confusion! But, honestly, you all know that saving this country isn’t going to be easy! It will be a lot of work and take a lot of time if we are serious!

Like this:

Update October 1: You can fax your testimony using the address below and send it to 202-224-9102.

Update: This post has been updated, both in the post and here. Please follow the new instructions and as I said in my update—saving America isn’t going to be easy so take the time and write a formal letter!

Tell the US Senate what you think about the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program by next Wednesday, October 5th.

Senator Jeff Sessions wants to hear what you think about the plans for over 100,000 refugees proposed by Obama for resettlement in the US in 2017 (which begins tomorrow!).

I know you are very angry, however, while being forceful, be polite. Remember you are writing to Senator Sessions who has been the shining light in the Senate for years on the issue of immigration and jobs.

If you didn’t see the hearing this past Wednesday, watch it here to get inspiration. See Leo Hohmann’s good summary of what happened here.

For those of you in overloaded and stressed towns, or in towns where secrecy has surrounded an existing or planned program, report on what is happening where you live.

If you don’t have refugees (yet), don’t hesitate to say what you think. This program requires billions of your tax dollars!

It would be a good idea to copy your letter to Sessions to your own US Senators and to your Representative in Congress. Be sure to reference the hearing on the President’s FY2017 Refugee Admissions Program and ask them in your cover note to them where they stand on this program.

***Update***Please take the time to write letters, in a letter format, I’ve been notified by the committee staff that they can’t simply post a couple of lines of e-mails. They have also asked that I remove the e-mail address I had originally published. You know how important this issue is to you, so spend a little time writing a formal letter!

Address letters (testimony) to:

The Honorable Jeff Sessions

Senate Judiciary Committee

Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest

US Senate

Washington, DC 20510

You probably will have to snail-mail your testimony unless I can find a way to send it electronically (will update here if I can). Ask that your testimony/letter be included in the hearing record.

Get it there by October 5th!

P.S. Then take advantage of the fact that you testified to the US Senate and use it as a media opportunity for your local newspaper/websites/facebook etc.

Like this:

Well, what else can you conclude when the federal government shovels a whopping $300,000 grant to a Somali women’s group located in Lewiston, ME.

How funny! The group was renamed with a more generic sounding name probably to more easily get the payola.

Maine’s Republican Senator Susan Collins is one of the worst Republican Senators on the Hill. Years ago I went to a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing she was co-chairing and I was stunned by her naive and silly way of looking at the terrorism issue as it related to Somalis leaving the US to join the jihadists.

BTW, when we first began writing RRW back in 2007 there were allegations in Tennessee that similar grant money, to a Somali group for the women, ended up in some Imam’s pocket who had mysteriously returned to Somalia.

LEWISTON, Maine (AP) – The federal Office on Violence Against Women is giving a Maine immigration resource center $300,000 for sexual assault and domestic violence advocacy in the immigrant community.

The money is going to Immigration Resource Center of Maine, which is located in Lewiston. The center was formerly called the United Somali Women of Maine.

Maine U.S. Sens. Angus King and Susan Collins say the immigration resource center will create, maintain and expand sexual assault services for East African sexual assault victims who live in southern Maine. [I can assure you that white Mainers are not doing the assaulting!—ed]

The senators say the money will help provide culturally specific services to ensure that members of Maine’s East African community have support and education about sexual assault and domestic violence.

Wow! How many sexual assaults and domestic violence cases are there in Maine?

New ‘welcoming’ towns pay attention!

This article (below) at World Net Dailyis a must read for all citizens in the new ‘welcoming’ resettlement sites the federal government is identifying around the United States.

Fargo Commissioner Dave Piepkorn: I think it (refugee resettlement) is the issue of the upcoming election; most people don’t know it yet.

We learned recently that there are 47 of them, but the US State Department is so secretive about where it’s sending refugees this year—110,000 of them if Obama has his way—that we only know of a handful (see list below).

Fargo, ND could be a poster city for what happens when a small city becomes swamped and the feds refuse to turn off the spigot.

This week the City Commissioners voted 5-0 to study just how much the program is costing the community with an eye to suing the federal government for what they call an “unfunded mandate.”

Here is Hohmann writing at World Net Dailywith a detailed summary of all the controversy on-going in Fargo (Fargo is one of the stops I made this summer on RRW’s roadtrip to troubled towns). This is a very detailed article and I’ve only snipped a small portion of it below:

The latest flashpoint in the growing backlash against refugee resettlement is Fargo, North Dakota, where the city commission is demanding a full accounting of the program’s costs.

“Surprisingly, that’s never been done before,” said a Fargo city commissioner, Dave Piepkorn, who spoke with WND this week and can be seen discussing his plan in the video above.

Fargo, like many other small cities that have received large numbers of refugees, has been divided by the issue. There have been protests against refugees and counter protests in favor of them, followed by biting blogs and news reports on both sides.

Fargo was thrust into the spotlight on Sept. 18 when it was revealed that the Somali refugee who attacked mall shoppers in St. Cloud, Minnesota, was originally resettled here.

“When we have one Muslim terrorist who tries to kill innocent people in St. Cloud, which is two hours from here, that raised my alarm,” said Piepkorn, who is leading the fight to expose the costs of refugee resettlement on his community.

[….]

Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota moved last year into a new, larger building, a symbol of its success in transforming Fargo into a model of diversity and multiculturalism.

Piepkorn, a former standout offensive lineman for the North Dakota State football team who was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in 1984, hopes to shine a light on the secretive process by which Fargo has been seeded with Third World refugees over the last two decades.

His proposal to direct the city staff to total up the costs of refugee resettlement in Fargo and Cass County was approved 5-0 by the city commission Monday night.

[….]

Fargo’s costs of integrating the refugees have been estimated at $250,000 for last year alone, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg, Piepkorn told WND.

Piepkorn said the U.S. State Department, which oversees the program, gives the city no say over how many refugees get sent to the community and from where. Those decisions are made by the State Department and Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota, which gets paid a fee by the government for each refugee it resettles in Fargo.

[….]

He believes that if the influx of refugees from the Third World into Fargo is driven by the federal government then the federal government ought to pay for the costs. He’s calling it an “unfunded mandate,” and he told a local radio host Tuesday that if the feds don’t ante up to help offset the costs, then the city will consider filing a lawsuit.

[….]

I think it is the issue of the upcoming election; most people don’t know it yet.

Continue reading here, the story is a detailed summary of what is coming your way once your town becomes a new resettlement site. I don’t know what it takes to convince people that those who have been there know what they are talking about!

Is your town one of dozens the US State Department has SECRETLY targeted?

(Broken record alert! I’m posting this on every post going forward!)

I get questions every day from readers wanting to know if there town is on the list (we recently heard that there are 47 of them). The State Department in Washington has a list, but to my knowledge it is kept secret from the general public until the refugee contractors (the VOLAGS) begin holding small meetings in town (your town) to start to line-up political support often through local ‘interfaith groups’ etc.

The feds are on a hunt for more towns because, as we described with Fargo, existing resettlement sites are troubled and pushing back, plus Obama’s last proposal of 110,000 beginning tomorrow (the first day of the 2017 fiscal year) is huge and they will be desperate to find places to put so many impoverished people.

Everyone should revisit this older postI wrote entitled ‘Ten things your town needs to know’ about refugee resettlement for your community.

Here are the new resettlement cities we have identified so far (go herefor a list of established resettlement sites) Remember readers that the Republicans in Congress are letting this happen:

Asheville, NC

Rutland, VT

Reno, NV

Ithaca, NY

Missoula, MT

Aberdeen, SD

Charleston, WV

Fayetteville, AR

Blacksburg, VA

Pittsfield, MA

Northhampton, MA

*Flint, Michigan

*Bloomington, IN

*for new sites identified after original posting

Do you know other towns? Someone sent me another one the other day and I promptly forgot it!

Although the good-for-nothing Congress quickly passed a Continuing Budget Resolution so they can get out of ‘Dodge’ (DC) and get home for 6 weeks, the funding issue is not dead this year.

They will be back in November to pass the budget for the remainder of FY2017 thus presenting another opportunity for us to CUT THE FUNDING for the massive number Obama has proposed.

Never forget! Right now the Republicans in Congress hold all the cards because they control the purse. If we get 110,000 or more (yes Hillary can even increase the number if she gets into the White House, she can say her 65,000 Syrian Muslims need to be airlifted here immediately), the blame will fall on the REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP who could cut off her money!

Like this:

For all the years I’ve been writing RRW (9 now), I’ve seen the Open Borders advocates and the Resettlement contractors*** try to make the President’s proposed numbers (his determination) for the upcoming fiscal year a REQUIRED GOAL. It is not! It is a CEILING. There is no requirement that they must reach that number and in fact most times they don’t.

If Donald Trump is elected and uses his power by cutting refugee admissions, expect much wailing and gnashing of teeth from Senators Dick Durban and Patrick Leahy, two of the most important members of the Senate welcoming tens of thousands of Middle Eastern and African refugees to your towns.

I’ve posted a table below from the Refugee Processing Center so you will have some idea what the ceiling was each year since 2006 and the number they hit.

By the way, failure to reach that number can usually be attributed to not enough resettlement sites and capacity in those sites (very often a limiting factor is the availability of enough cheap housing), or it might simply be that the UNHCR hasn’t processed enough refugees for us that year.

However, I doubt that this administration in its waning months is going to be responsible and consider capacity.

My guess is that the refugee flow is going to be on steroids for October and in to November.

If Trump is elected they will go completely insane pouring people in here before his inauguration (unless in December the lame duck Congress severely curtails their funding).

To accommodate these vast new numbers Obama has proposed, and because they are wearing out their welcome in existing resettlement sites, we are hearing that there are as many as 47 new targeted towns to be seeded with mostly Middle Eastern and African refugees.

The Continuing Resolution, being voted on this week, will give them enough money (since the Republican leadership has failed us) to get that ball rolling in the first few months. In fact, that ball will get rolling in two days, on October first!

What about Hillary’s 65,000 Syrians?

Inyesterday’s hearingsomeone (Sen. Sessions?) asked about Hillary’s proposed 65,000 Syrians and if there had to be any “consultation” with Congress if she is elected and wants to bring that many in the opening days of her administration. The answer is yes, probably, but what the hell is Congress going to do other than say, ‘thanks for stopping by and informing us!’Congress’ only recourse is to stop the funding! Don’t hold your breath!

Conversely, because the Refugee Admissions Program is heavily weighted toward the President’s wishes, if Donald Trump should be elected, he has great leeway to cut back, or even propose a moratorium on Obama’s 110,000 goal. He does not have to reach the ceiling!

Of course, he would have to “consult” Congress too. The likes of Senators Patrick Leahy and Dick Durban will be WAILING! (That would be fun to see!)

So, bottomline, Donald Trump must win the Presidency and Congress must cut the funding for the program, or we are finished.

Here is the table I mentioned above. You will be looking at the columns labeled “ceiling” and “admitted.”

The table above is through August 31, 2016. As of today, September 29th, the FY 2016 admissions are at 84,870 with the Syrians at 12,571 (Refugee Processing Center). When you are looking at the table, note also how they completely stress-out towns (local health departments, schools, etc.) by bringing in large new batches of refugees in the last two months of the fiscal year in their zeal to hit that ceiling.

One more thing! Do you see how far off the mark they were in 2011, that is because those two Iraqi refugee terrorists were discovered living in Kentucky and much security screening had to be repeated.

***For new readers these are the nine federal resettlement contractors who rely almost completely on funding from you, the taxpayer:

Like this:

Yesterday the Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest, grilled three members of the Obama Administration on the plan to admit 110,000 refugees to the US in the next fiscal year which begins on Saturday (Oct. 1).

This is a required hearing under the Refugee Act of 1980 and we will be looking for the House hearing (where are your Reps Goodlatte and Gowdy?).

Senators Ted Cruz and Jeff Sessions were not happy (understatement!) when they heard details of so-called screening of refugees from the failed state of Syria.

Many issues were raised, but naturally the one that brought out the most angry exchanges involved the vetting process.

Leo Hohmann, of World Net Daily, watched and summarized those key points in his lengthy report, here.

This is how he begins:

President Obama’s top official responsible for vetting refugees testified before the Senate Wednesday that it’s possible for people from Syria and other terrorist-infested countries to have their refugee applications approved based simply on personal interviews with a “highly trained” immigration officer.

Leon Rodriguez, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, could not deny that in many cases there is no data from the refugee’s home country that would corroborate or refute his story. He tried to reassure the committee by saying the screening process is lengthy and continuously being improved, noting that the United Nations pre-screens the refugees before his office even sees them.

Under questioning from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Rodriguez at first avoided giving a direct answer on whether it was possible to gain admission as a refugee based solely on an interview. That infuriated Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who chairs the subcommittee on immigration and the national interest. His subcommittee conducted the hearing Wednesday on Obama’s refugee plans for fiscal year 2017, which begins Saturday, Oct. 1.

Obama plans to bring 110,000 refugees to the United States in 2017, up from 85,000 in 2016 and 70,000 in 2015.

The administration has exceeded its 2016 target on Syrian refugees by 30 percent, resettling 12,500 in dozens of U.S. cities and towns, rather than the 10,000 it had promised the U.N.

At Wednesday’s hearing, administration officials refused to say how many refugees they intend to bring in from Syria in fiscal 2017, only that it would likely exceed the 12,500 brought this year. (See my post on that portion of hearing, here.)

Nor did they say how many would come from Somalia, Iraq, Burma, Afghanistan and other hotbeds of Sunni radicalism.

When the subject turned to the process of “vetting” the refugees, sparks began to fly.